Philosophy

Philosophy

1. provides explanations, arguments, and proofs

2. critical and logical thinking

3. human dignity, equality and freedom

   • more than meaning of words

4. Metaphysics

   • addresses general and profound questions about reality
   • Aristotle and Metaphysics
     • 384-322 BCE
     • first philosopher to speak about metaphysics
     • "First Philosophy" : a knowledge of the first principles or causes of thing
       • each cause - different answer
         • material cause
         • formal cause
         • efficient cause
         • final cause
     • argued that there are no universals that are unattached to existing things
     • matter: the potential being
       • form: the actual one
     • there must be an ulitamate source from which everything comes from
     • Epistemology
       • empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and that of sense in acquiring knowledge
         • Bacon, Locke, and Hume
       • Rationalism: concerned solely with the place of reason in knowdledge
         • Plato, Descartes, and Aquinas
       • Scepticism: questions the basis of all knowdledge
         • Descartes, Hume, and Narajuna